§ Mr. William RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) what is the annual cost of monitoring the religious affiliation of the employees of each department of the Northern Ireland civil service;
(2) what is the annual cost of monitoring the religious affiliation of the employees of the Industrial Development Board.
§ Mr. AtkinsMonitoring of religious affiliation of the employees of the Northern Ireland Departments and the Industrial Development Board is undertaken centrally by the Northern Ireland civil service equal opportunities unit located in the Department of Finance and Personnel. I would therefore refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave him on 19 March 1993,Official Report,Volume 221, column 150.
§ Mr. William RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the annual cost of monitoring the religious affiliation of the employees of each district council in Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. AtkinsThis information is not held centrally. It is a matter for each district council in Northern Ireland to monitor the religious composition of its work force in accordance with section 27 of the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1989.
The Local Government Staff Commission for Northern Ireland also monitors the fair employment practices of 276W district councils under section 35 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Northern Ireland) Order 1992, but does not identify separately expenditure on specific activities on this type, which would be negligible.